Crypto thieves attack man in home and threaten pregnant wife in 'horrific' robbery - BBC News.

So if you watch the video, the second we shut the door, three people get out of that car. The door gets pushed open, I can see gloves coming in, balaclavas. So straight away I'm fighting, I'm pushing, I don't know what's going on. Without a word, these young men began their brutal and violent attack. The first one that came in, I managed to punch him, he went straight to the floor. So at this point the second one who pushed my wife onto the sofa, he's got a pillow over her face. He's literally suffocating on the sofa, she's seven months pregnant. I can hear her screaming like I can't breathe. The first one I hit got off the floor, I see him pull a hammer out of his pocket and he just swung it sideways straight through my forehead. Both of them kneeled on top of me and both of them started smashing me with hammers, all my face, the back of my head, my ribs, my knee. So the one's kneeling on my wife's stomach, she's screaming, she's seven months pregnant like you're going to kill the baby. And then one said to me, give me your phone. At this point, James, not his real name, realised what the attackers wanted, his cryptocurrency. But the thugs had no idea how to work his crypto apps, they were being directed by someone on a video call. So he's got my phone like that and his phone like that and I can hear the guy on FaceTime saying show me everything on his phone, show me what apps he's got. He clicked on a wallet with a lot of funds in it and then he was basically saying look if you don't send us this money now, we're going to stab your wife in the stomach, we're going to kill your baby, we're going to kill your wife. Even now, nine months later, the trauma of the attack is obvious. Somehow James managed to use his laptop to transfer his entire crypto savings, hundreds of thousands of pounds of digital coins, to the man on the phone. The criminals also left with several expensive Rolex watches. In the stress of the robbery, James' wife thought she was going into labour. The baby was okay, luckily, I don't know how, and obviously he managed to make it through. These kinds of physical robberies for digital coins, like Bitcoin, are becoming more common. Everyone that doubted us found we mean. Violent thefts and kidnappings have been reported elsewhere in the UK, in France, the US and the Philippines. Unlike traditional finance, in crypto, you are your own bank, responsible for safekeeping of your own coins, either in physical devices or digital wallets. And once the coins have been transferred to someone else, there's often no way to get them back. When you report a crime to us over the phone, your number can't be seen by our contact handler. UK charity Crimestoppers is offering a £10,000 reward for information about James' case. The full-time crypto trader isn't expecting to get his savings back, but does want the violent attackers, and whoever directed them, caught. I want people to know what these little rats are doing. They need to be caught, people need to pick up the phone and say, yeah, I recognise him. James still has no idea how the criminals knew he had savings in crypto. He's warning others to be alert to the growing risks of these so-called wrench attacks. Joe Tidey, BBC News.